Black People : It's better in the Bahamas??

The Bahamas became in independent nation in 1973. Since then, it has been stable, has a thriving economy, respectable unemployment rate, low crime rate, stable society, and is 85% Black, 12% White, and 3% Hispanic/asian.

Can we build more societies like this? Or is their something about this society that I don't know which makes it less than optimal for us?

The Bahamas became in independent nation in 1973. Since then, it has been stable, has a thriving economy, respectable unemployment rate, low crime rate, stable society, and is 85% Black, 12% White, and 3% Hispanic/asian.

Can we build more societies like this? Or is their something about this society that I don't know which makes it less than optimal for us?

Click to expand...

mite be better to get some info from the folks living there, to get the real deal

By way of both preface and prologue, today we join our voice to all those that today sigh, cry and lament for a nation that is losing its way. The evidence is abundant that very many Bahamians are already lost; some of them bought – lock, stock and barrel – by new slavers.

This time around, the new slavery is one that calls on so very many people to get rich or die trying. The new tyranny calls on people who have disputes to leave no stone turned in their perfervid quest for what they think is justice delivered their way and on the spot.

Compounding the matter at hand is that collective delusion concerning the role the police are supposed to be making in this regard.

Day in and day out we are regaled with one long story after the other from this or that police spokesperson concerning the latest outrage.

To date, all of this has been either warmed over self-congratulation on the part of the police or some of the most wonderful nonsense ever chatted by anyone we know.

We have heard it said that crime is the fever chart of a sick society. As we see it, this statement speaks truth.

It might be very useful for us to analyze crime in The Bahamas as if it was one of our major public health issues.

Crime and social health are intimately connected. The more criminalized the society, the greater the degree of social pathology.

In every country, to a greater or lesser extent, violence blights lives and undermines health. Acknowledging this, in 1996 the 49th World Health Assembly adopted a resolution (WHA49.25) declaring violence a major and growing public health problem across the world.

Of note is the fact that the resolution ended by calling for a plan of action for progress towards a science based public health approach to preventing violence. The World Health Organization defines violence as the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or a group or community, that either results in, or has a high likelihood of resulting in, injury, death, psychological harm, mal-development, or deprivation.

In just the past six years – coterminous with the so-called war against terror – millions of people have died as a result of violence. Many more have suffered injury.

Of the deaths, tens of thousands were suicides, almost a third were homicides. In addition, tens of thousands of children were slaughtered.

Note well that our own country continues to experience some of the effects of this dread mix of pathology and crime. Here we note that, as crime cascades throughout our archipelago; some of our people are beginning to wonder whether there is truth in the proposition that, the criminal element is large; that it is violent and that, in case after case, they have been able to baffle the police.

Indeed, such has been the insidious flow of this onslaught that, few Bahamians are today any longer outraged when they hear about the newest low to which some criminals can go. Instead, what we do get is some variant on the conclusion that, things such as these are to be expected in these last and evil days.

As we see things -- Such has been the extent to which rape, mayhem, murder and other dastardly crimes against the person and property now pervade public consciousness; few Bahamians take note of the fact that there are –quite literally speaking – murderers, rapists, thieves and other such thugs smack-dab in the midst of the likes of them.

This, in turn, has to do with the fact that, very many of these god-awful crimes sometimes remain unsolved; and as they recede from the public’s agenda of the moment; even more crimes are committed.

Commonsense alone suggests that, some of these crimes might well be the handiwork of some of these ‘successful’ criminals.

And so, like others who now despair, we wonder whether those in charge of the police force are themselves seized of the enormity of this conjecture; particularly as they chat here, there and sometimes seemingly everywhere about zero-tolerance and intelligence-driven policing.

Yet again, we wonder.

Evidently, then, while crime remains one of this nation’s premier public safety issues; it is also a seriously pressing health issue.

As a public health issue, the search for solution requires much more than policing. In addition, we take it as a given that, policing always works best in situations where people are disciplined and therefore self-policed.

You really do not have to be a genius or rocket scientist to figure out that once you have to call in the police, the game is already over.

The Bahamas became in independent nation in 1973. Since then, it has been stable, has a thriving economy, respectable unemployment rate, low crime rate, stable society, and is 85% Black, 12% White, and 3% Hispanic/asian.

Can we build more societies like this? Or is their something about this society that I don't know which makes it less than optimal for us?

I am actually grasping at straws. I think some people might consider it easier to build something new and model it after an existing success rather than fix something that's so badly broken.

The amazing thing is that anything that involves talking about takiing a specific course of action gets no attention at all. There is no controversy involved, nothing to argue about. It just requires constructive input, ideas, and strategic planning.

Brother Clyde, Where are all of the Black Nationalist on this issue? Shouldn't they be leading the way in this arena of Black Nation building/fixing or am I wrong about their objective of self-determination, and establishing an independent, self-sustaining existence?

I am actually grasping at straws. I think some people might consider it easier to build something new and model it after an existing success rather than fix something that's so badly broken.

The amazing thing is that anything that involves talking about takiing a specific course of action gets no attention at all. There is no controversy involved, nothing to argue about. It just requires constructive input, ideas, and strategic planning.

Brother Clyde, Where are all of the Black Nationalist on this issue? Shouldn't they be leading the way in this arena of Black Nation building/fixing or am I wrong about their objective of self-determination, and establishing an independent, self-sustaining existence?

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what do you care about Black Nationalism, to ask were we are at?

and realy who fairs better in the Bahamas?

the white minority or the Black majority?

was this a post for education inspiration and productive dialogue or was it posted to insight senseless and time wasteing back and forth flame wars?

The Bahamas became in independent nation in 1973. Since then, it has been stable, has a thriving economy, respectable unemployment rate, low crime rate, stable society, and is 85% Black, 12% White, and 3% Hispanic/asian.

Can we build more societies like this? Or is their something about this society that I don't know which makes it less than optimal for us?

Click to expand...

their something about this society that I don't know which makes it less than optimal for us?

was this a post for education inspiration and productive dialogue or was it posted to insight senseless and time wasteing back and forth flame wars?

Click to expand...

I don't consider myself a Black Nationalist, but I do care about the condition of Black people worldwide. So, I want Black Nationalist to succeed at their goals, but I am unclear on the goals of Black Nationalist. I was of the impression that this is the type of thing Black Nationalist would be looking into, either building a nation, repairing an existing one, or building a independent and self-sustaining existence where we are.

Who fairs better in the Bahamas? I'm not sure...that was the question I posed in the OP. From what I see, Blacks hold the positions of power, Blacks control law enforcement, Blacks control most everything. But, I don't know if there is an economic sting puller.

Why is it that when anyone ask a question or makes a suggestion that attempts to see if Black Nationalism is about ACTION or to move it from Rhetoric to Action, rather than recieve it as constructive it is percived as an attack or an attempt to stir up stuff? I see that response as a defense against an admission that there is nothing to it but rhetoric.

For the record. My questions where/are sincere. I have an inquiring mind. I want to know.

I am actually grasping at straws. I think some people might consider it easier to build something new and model it after an existing success rather than fix something that's so badly broken.

The amazing thing is that anything that involves talking about takiing a specific course of action gets no attention at all. There is no controversy involved, nothing to argue about. It just requires constructive input, ideas, and strategic planning.

Brother Clyde, Where are all of the Black Nationalist on this issue? Shouldn't they be leading the way in this arena of Black Nation building/fixing or am I wrong about their objective of self-determination, and establishing an independent, self-sustaining existence?

Click to expand...

I hear ya Brother Full Speed...and I see your point(s), give 'em a minute to show up, lol.